Saturday, 16 June 2007

New Appointments to the Order of Merit

The Queen's birthday honours were announced today (with knighthoods bestowed upon Sir Ian Botham and Sir Salman Rushdie amongst others) however, as important as these honours are, I would prefer to focus upon the new appointments to the Order of Merit, which were announced on Wednesday.

"The Queen has been pleased to appoint The Lord Rees of Ludlow (President of the Royal Society), The Rt Rev The Lord Eames, (former Anglican Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh), and Sir Timothy Berners-Lee KBE, (inventor of the World Wide Web) to be members of the Order of Merit.

BackgroundThe Order of Merit, founded in 1902 by King Edward VII, is a special mark of honour conferred by the Sovereign on individuals of exceptional distinction in the arts, learning, sciences and other areas. Appointments to the Order are in the Sovereign's personal gift and ministerial advice is not required."

Congratulations to all three on appointment to what is arguably the rarest and most prestigious meritocratic honour.

1 comment:

Congratulations indeed. As an Order untained by the base motives which have tarnished Government appointments over the past ten years, the Order of Merit may still be viewed as a most worthy honour and indicative of genuine merit.